“Uhh, this place sucks.” It was hot and now that the week was done we actually had to start doing chores. It wasn’t anything that bad, mostly leveling land, moving lumber, and helping with the building of houses. They didn’t really want anyone else touching the field apparently.
“Suck it up. We are giving you free food and housing, if you don’t want to be here then go home. Nobody else is complaining.” Liz was apparently the straightforward one of the little group. While the others gave reasons or tried to change my mind, she just didn’t care.
“Yeah, but couldn’t you just rent a C.A.T., you could have done this in a few days.” We were leveling a small plot of land, John had apparently come and cut down all the trees. He also ripped up the stumps as they were none around, just big holes and even terrain. The guy was huge but that was pushing it.
“If we had Tony here it would only take a month. Unfortunately you guys are still new and Tony gets fidgety around new people so, I repeat, suck it up or fuck off.” Rein laughed at the woman’s strong language. They were a strange couple but I could see how they could work out in the long run.
“Who the hell is Tony?”
“A giant two ton rock creature that lives in the tunnels underground.”
“Whatever.” It seemed being here for too long gave everyone a sense of sarcasm. It was starting to get annoying to be honest. But I was still reluctant to leave this place, for all its faults it had a nice rustic charm to it. It was a nice escape from city life, the problem was doing it for a few more months or even years seemed a little crazy. I mean living in the woods was only fun until it wasn’t. So I figured that if anyone else left, then I was gone but if after another week no one left then I was gone anyway. This type of living just wasn’t for me, I hated the idea of running some boring factory job like my parents. Although I could always figure out some other career, I mean there had to be something that I could do to actually help people. You know without actually being stuck in the woods for the rest of my life.
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So yeah another week in the woods wouldn’t kill me, I mean Alex was doing it and that guy was heavy. So I should be able to do it no problem, albeit with a little more complaining. “Uhh this is going to be a long week.”
“I will beat you with this shovel child.” Liz was apparently not just straightforward; she was also easy to anger. Well I didn’t need to complain for now at least.
A few more hours of digging and we headed back to camp for lunch. That was when I got the first look at Destiny since we had gotten here, she had addiction problems and was looking for help. She apparently got it because she looked pretty great. Before we got here she was skinny and she looked like she could be in her thirties. But now she looked almost ten years younger and she gained a little weight. She even smiled as Liz and her chatted about something, compared to her just scratching her arms and looking every which way but forward. Her skin seemed to be healthier too, the marks on her arm were gone and her skin had a, hmm, maybe a glow is the right word.
“Hey, Destiny. I guess they were able to help you huh.” I commented as she and Liz walked past me.
“Yeah. No more problems just trying to get my legs underneath me again.” She looked at me as she spoke, but was kind of talking to both of us.
“Well, glad to see you up and around.” And now I was just talking, Destiny was cute. Maybe I could find a time when Liz wasn’t there to actually talk to her, and didn't need Liz stepping on my toes the entire time.
“Yeah, I’ll catch up with you later, Liz wanted to show me something.”
“Alright see ya.” They walked off together still talking and laughing, it was weird to be here. It felt like I didn’t belong, and usually I was the talkative one. Able to slide into a group and fit in their little dynamic, but here the main people didn’t talk to each other like at all. While the other few people were not really in the modern crowd, Alex was a little old, Chas was a little young, and Malina just would not stop talking. I figured Destiny may be the one person I could actually talk with, but she already made friends with the locals.
“Ehh, I’ll figure it out.” I headed out to see what the gym was like, then I needed to help move some finished lumber plates to the new house that was being built. It was tough work but not if it was usually back breaking and we only worked for a few hours at a time usually.